Trump Just Signed a Bill That Lets States Defund Planned Parenthood

On Thursday, President Trump signed into law a bill that allows states to withhold federal funding for family planning services from Planned Parenthood clinics and other health centers that provide abortion care.

A rule called the Hyde Amendment already prohibited federal funding for abortion care itself except for in the case of endangerment of the mother's life or of rape or incest. The bill that Trump just made the law of the land, which passed the Senate 51–50 in March, goes even farther. It lets states cut off the funding that health centers receive for their family-planning-related services — include cancer screenings, STI testing, and contraceptive access — if those health centers also provide abortion care.

The bill is a repeal of an Obama-era rule that prohibited states from withholding funding from Title X, the sole federal family planning program in the U.S., from abortion providers. Title X serves some four million low-income people a year, and health advocates are denouncing the new bill as an attack on those most in need of care. "Despite repeated promises that he would protect and invest in women’s health, President Trump has once again shown that his words carry little weight," Heidi Williamson, the senior policy analyst for the Women’s Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress, said in a statement. "Trump’s actions are creating very real and damaging consequences for millions of women and their families, inflicting direct harm on already vulnerable communities."